The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 episode 6, review: Gilead depicted like Star Wars’ evil Empire – but with bonus misogyny

Nothing shouts “fun” like a Margaret Atwood dystopia, so what about an impromptu game of The Handmaid’s Tale bingo? That is one of the thoughts that occurs watching an episode that checks off the cliches with grim aplomb.

A closing shot of June (Elisabeth Moss) looking defiant but also sad as the soundtrack swells? Tick. Beautifully composed tableaux that underscore Gilead’s ability to dehumanise on an epic scale? Well, yes. Another heart-to-heart between June and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) that starts hushed and sisterly and culminates in a low-key shouting match? But of course.

Yet for all that, “Household”, directed by Dearbhla Walsh (who will know all about conjuring with dystopias having worked on EastEnders), is a highlight of a sluggish third season. Its most important function is to widen the world of Gilead. Thus far we’ve really only seen greater Boston. But now June has been summoned to the nation’s capital, Washington, as a ghastly appendage to Fred and Serena’s campaign to have Canada repatriate baby Nichole.

Awaiting her is a carnival of dread. At the train station, escalators are gender segregated and as a handmaid, June is forced to kneel on a designated red spot until she is collected by her owners. That is just the start: we later discover that, here, handmaids’ mouths are sewn while, in a ghastly joke, the Washington Monument has been tricked out as a gigantic cross. In one stunning sequence, June gazes out over ranks of Handmaids on Washington Mall, arranged like Storm Troopers in a George Lucas sci-fi rhapsody.

The true horrors are more subtle. Switzerland is mediating the dispute between Gilead and Canada, which, mindful of its neighbour’s military might, has not ruled out returning Nichole. Alone with the diplomats, June strikes a deal: they guarantee her daughter stays in the north and in return she provides intelligence on Gilead’s “black box” government style.

This she hopes to carry off with the cooperation of her lover, and Nichole’s father, Nick (Max Minghella). But we discover that, before becoming a driver for the Waterfords, he was part of the religious militia which helped sweep away the old order and create Gilead (cracking skulls and burning people out of their homes as they went). Thus he is not someone with whom the Swiss are inclined to do business.

Washington is also an unsettling switch of scenery for Fred, Serena and Aunt Lydia. Their hosts, the Winslows, are overrun with children – and have set themselves up as a ghoulish parody of a happy family. But high commander Winslow (Christopher Meloni) hints at a secret side when turning touchy-feely with Fred at the pool table. And Lydia, of all people, is discombobulated by the binding of Handmaids mouths.

As ever, little happens in terms of storyline. But The Handmaid’s Tale gives us the worst chills in depicting Gilead as Star Wars’ Galactic Empire with bonus ritualised misogyny. The conceit could have fallen flat on its bonnet. Instead, Walsh achieves a horrible grandeur in an episode that, if narratively slight, nonetheless delivers some of the season’s most breathtaking imagery.